“In conclusion, the plaintiff has suffered such terrible consequences that there is a natural feeling that he should be compensated. But, as Denning LJ correctly remarked in Roe v Ministry of Health & others; Woolley v Same [1954] EWCA Civ 7; [1954] 2 All ER 131 (CA) at 139:
‘But we should be doing a disservice to the community at large if we were to impose liability on hospitals and doctors for everything that happens to go wrong. Doctors would be led to think more of their own safety than of the good of their patients. Initiative would be stifled and confidence shaken. A proper sense of proportion requires us to have regard to the conditions in which hospitals and doctors have to work. We must insist on due care for the patient at every point, but we must not condemn as negligence that which is only a misadventure’.”
DH Zondi JA in Medi-Clinic Ltd v Vermeulen (504/13) [2014] ZASCA 150; 2015 (1) SA 241 (SCA) (26 September 2014) at para [33].